Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Standing firm on tough conditions, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday his troops would not release their hold on six West Bank towns until the Palestinians turn over the militants who assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister.
The U.S. government, meanwhile, issued its strongest denunciation of the Israeli operation on Monday, demanding that Israel pull out immediately.
In Jerusalem, thousands of Israeli demonstrators demanded that Sharon expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and bring down his Palestinian Authority.
Israeli tanks rumbled deeper into Palestinian towns, setting off street battles for a fifth day. In Tulkarem, a 65-year-old Palestinian man was killed, Palestinians said.
A leaflet issued in Bethlehem by Arafat’s Fatah faction warned that if Israeli tanks did not withdraw from the biblical town, "Our bullets will fall like the rain on Gilo."
Gilo is a Jewish neighborhood built on disputed land on Jerusalem’s southern fringe, and gunfire there set off the incursion early Friday.
In the Aida refugee camp outside Bethlehem, heavy gunbattles erupted as tanks rolled in. In Ramallah, tanks fired shells and were met by Palestinian fire. Overnight, Israeli army bulldozers destroyed the headquarters of Force 17, one of the Palestinian security services, in Ramallah. Israel said Force 17 members were suspected of having killed 10 Israelis in shooting attacks.
In Nablus, Hamas militant Ayman Halaweh, was killed in a blast in a car, Palestinians said. The government said Halaweh had been No. 1 one on a list of militants Israel had demanded the Palestinian Authority arrest.
Also on Monday, Arafat’s new point man in Jerusalem said the Palestinians erred in appearing to insist on the right of millions of refugees to return to Israel — a demand that was a key reason peace talks fell apart.
Sari Nusseibeh said Monday the refugees should be resettled in a future Palestinian state, "not in a way that would undermine the existence of the state of Israel as a predominantly Jewish state."
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